The Kiwanis Blog

• Caribbean partnership promotes language

  June 12, 2013

  

  A casual partnership between two Caribbean Kiwanis clubs, one Anglophone and one Francophone, yielded a committed relationship celebrating their determined commitment to children and bilingualism.

  “In February 2009, my daughter visited Saint Lucia for four months,” says Inès Marinho, president of the Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, Kiwanis Club. “I accompanied her for the first week and immediately sought out a local Kiwanis club.”

  Her search for a “sister club” led her to the Castries Kiwanis Club. Their ...

  Full story

• A birthday bash for babies

  June 05, 2013

  

  The Eliminate Project is about protecting newborn and future babies from tetanus and helping them reach another birthday. To raise awareness about the importance of this task, Kiwanian Bob Marshall of the Norfolk, Nebraska, Kiwanis Club decided to use two things at his disposal: his 60th birthday and his love of music.

  A member of several bands throughout his life, Bob’s musical repertoire includes a variety of instruments. “I’ve been a music-maker for most of ...

  Full story

• Vancouver blooms with Kiwanis roses

  June 04, 2013

  

  Vancouver has a lot of beautiful sights and interesting landmarks, including a pair of Stanley Park attractions with relevance to Kiwanis.

  Did you know, for example that President Warren G. Harding was a Kiwanis club member, and that there’s a memorial for him in Stanley Park? In fact, there’s a story behind that—check it out.

  But did you also know that Stanley Park is known for its flower gardens, and that one of its ...

  Full story

• Award-winning Key Club's next project: Build a Kiwanis club

  June 03, 2013

  

  It’s hard to receive an award for service. There are a lot of great acts of goodness out there; so, it’s downright impossible to get noticed if you don’t enter the contest, isn’t it?

  Perhaps, but not so for New Jersey’s Millburn High School Key Club, winner of the state’s Community Food Bank’s Division 5 food-collecting contest. The thing is: No one in the Key Club entered the contest. You can read about the club’s ...

  Full story

• Kiwanis says farewell to President Harding

  June 02, 2013

  

  The October 1925 Kiwanis magazine served as a commemorative issue of a ceremony in Vancouver, British Columbia’s Stanley Park. More than 12,000 people gathered on that occasion to dedicate a memorial to former United States President and Marion, Ohio, Kiwanian Warren G. Harding. But rather than dwell on the president’s unexpected death, the monument also celebrated the goodwill that exists between Kiwanis’ two founding nations.

  Two bronze figures, representing the United States and Canada, stand ...

  Full story

• Dinner in white

  June 01, 2013

  

  Maybe you’ve heard of Le Dîner en Blanc (Dinner in White) concept: a group of people picks a surprise location, invites friends to bring food and all-white dinnerware and linens, and then creates a beautiful, elegant party meant for a good time—but also to draw attention.

  The Kiwanis Club of Nürnberg-Franken, Germany, borrowed this concept for its dinner in white party and turned a lot of heads recently at a park right in the center ...

  Full story

• Fighting hunger at home and in Haiti

  May 31, 2013

  The sun had barely risen into the hazy morning sky on April 6, but Downey High School was already a hub of activity. Hundreds of Kiwanis-family members from the California-Nevada-Hawaii Division 13 were gathering at the school in Southeast Los Angeles County—ready to participate in Kiwanis One Day, when Kiwanis members around the world join in a day of service.

  “We’ll pack 50,000 meals today to ship to Haiti, to schoolchildren who are going hungry,” ...

  Full story

• Stopping MNT in its tracks

  May 30, 2013

  Kiwanis clubs around the world are helping rid the Earth of a deadly disease, one nation at a time.

  Iraq and Cote d'Ivorie recently eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus. They join a long list of nations that have used a combination of immunization campaigns and safe birthing education to stop the disease in its tracks. As recently as 2000, neonatal tetanus killed approximately 200,000 newborns in 59 countries each year. Now that number has ...

  Full story

• Helping hands support a family's wish

  May 29, 2013

  

  Turbo enjoys spending time with his best friend on the bus, at the beach and at home. But Turbo is no ordinary dog.

  Turbo was specially trained to meet the specific needs of a child and a family. His charge is Luke, a 13 year old who is autistic, has a developmental delay, suffers from epilepsy and is non-verbal. The family became interested in obtaining a dog after learning the potential impact a furry friend could ...

  Full story

• Partnering to feed the hungry

  May 22, 2013

  

  Hunger is an often invisible community tragedy. But for the past 15 years, the Manhattan, Kansas, Kiwanis Club has had a very visible connection to a food network that feeds thousands of families.

  Carroll Hackbart has been volunteering with the Flint Hills Breadbasket since the club took on the project. “I don’t like to see perfectly good food go to waste, especially when there are people that have a need for it,” he says.

  The ...

  Full story

• On a mission to build

  May 15, 2013

   

  Fifty years ago, more than 200 Kiwanians and guests from North America boarded planes to make history. The previous year, 1962, Kiwanis opened the door to establishing clubs outside the United States and Canada, and a “European Mission” was organized to officially welcome new clubs in three Continental cities: Vienna, Austria; Basel, Switzerland and Brussels, Belgium.

  This year, Kiwanis celebrates the 50th anniversary of Kiwanis in Europe. The first European club, the Kiwanis Club ...

  Full story

• Transformational teamwork

  May 15, 2013

  

  Perseverance and community networking allowed one Canadian Kiwanis club to contribute funding toward the construction of a recreational center in their community. Supporting the project soon became a route to not only the community’s transformation, but also the club’s.

  After seven years of dedicated fundraising, the Kiwanis Club of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, fulfilled a CAD $100,000 commitment toward the construction of the Garcelon Civic Centre. The civic center is intended to become a recreational, ...

  Full story

• Charitable cars drive intercontinental change

  May 08, 2013

  

  The passion two Swiss Kiwanians share for classic cars has been harnessed to fundraise thousands of dollars for children in the African nation of Zimbabwe.

  The members’ leadership allowed the Kiwanis Club of Weinfelden, Switzerland, to create and host one of the largest car shows in eastern Switzerland. Hosted first in 2009, then 2011, the second biennial Charity Classic showcased more than 60 vehicles on a parade through the canton of Thurgau.

  Motivated by a ...

  Full story

• Funding fun

  April 24, 2013

  

  Some elbow grease and Kiwanis funds are helping the Island of Hawaii YMCA reach even more children this year.

  Contacted by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation because of its community involvement, the Kiwanis Club of East Hawaii was informed that the foundation can award nonprofit organizations a US$10,000 check if they execute a project for another nonprofit organization supporting children in the community. The Weinberg Foundation aims to assist financially disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals ...

  Full story

• Painting pleasure

  April 17, 2013

  

  Joyce Mesrobian often takes in the wooded trails, around the ponds and through the prairie on the campus of the retirement center where she lives, and the Lindenhurst-the Lakes Area, Illinois, Kiwanian felt saddened that many fellow residents did not have such mobility.

  Aiming to bring some of the beautifully landscaped outdoors in, Mesrobian began searching for someone to paint nature scenes on a 175-foot bare wall in the tunnel between the independent living building ...

  Full story

• Doll delight

  April 10, 2013

  

  Kiwanis clubs around the world make dolls for children in hospitals. Few are likely prepared to ship them halfway across the globe. Despite the financial cost associated with their passion, Kiwanis-family members around the Michigan District have shown a multi-year commitment to mailing their colorful dolls to countries around the African continent.

  As a means to build on a partnership program between clubs in sub-Saharan Africa and the United States, one Michigan Kiwanian’s work in ...

  Full story

• Puppet presents

  April 03, 2013

  

  To most people, a major earthquake that happened in February 2011 seems like old news. But for residents of Christchurch, New Zealand, particularly the children, normalcy has yet to return. Spring in the town of Christchurch used to mean daffodils and families traversing parks, but since the disaster, it takes more than sunshine to brighten the spirits of preschoolers whose lives were turned upside down.

  Patsy Hill, a member of the Takapuna, New Zealand, Kiwanis ...

  Full story

• Village outreach services deliver vaccines to those hardest to reach

  March 29, 2013

  

  World Immunization Week begins April 20, and what better way to participate than by saving or protecting a life through a donation to The Eliminate Project. Just US$1.80 will protect one woman and her future babies. And, millions of women in remote locations of 30 countries still need to be immunized.

  One of the most important ways that UNICEF gets vaccines—including tetanus—to those hardest to reach is through village outreach services. Trained health workers visit ...

  Full story

• Finding her strength

  March 29, 2013

  

  Forced by choppy, cold water to abandon the journey toward their appointed rendezvous, Mary Carunchia and her Wilderness Volunteers team rowed to safety on a rocky shore somewhere in the remote regions of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Cold, wet, exhausted and without a working radio, they waited for rescue. Plano, Texas, Kiwanian Carunchia learned a lot about herself through that ordeal. Here’s her story, in her own words.

  It was a very challenging environment. We had ...

  Full story

• Adomba's agility

  March 27, 2013

   

  Adomba is a playful four-year-old who loves to ride his tricycle. But he did not always have this ability. Born prematurely in the African nation of Ghana, he moved with his parents to the United States to seek better care and opportunities for him.

  Difficulty in walking independently and frequent falls led him to be referred to Dr. John Delahay for an orthopedic evaluation. Delahay is a well-respected orthopedic surgeon at MedStar Georgetown University ...

  Full story

2. 1
3. 2
4. 3
5. 4
6. 5
7. 6
8. 7
9. 8
10. 9
11. Next page

blog comments powered by Disqus